METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GESTURE-BASED SEARCHING

• US 20150186525A1
• Filed: 12/26/2013
• Published: 07/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Noguerol, Juan M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,672,287 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A content searching technique that includes sensing at least three types of input gestures from a user, each of the at least three input gestures representative of a respective one of a search term, a class of assets to be searched and a location to be searched. The sensed at least three types of input gestures are translated into the search term, the class of assets to be searched and the location to be searched. The specified location is searched for the class of assets corresponding to the search term. A list of assets residing or available from at the searched location corresponding to the search term are presented in a user interface display.

Claims

1. A method of searching for content data, the method comprising:

sensing at least three gestures from a user, each of the at least three gestures representative of a respective one of a search term, a class of assets to be searched and a location to be searched;

translating the sensed at least three types of gestures into the search term, the class of assets to be searched and the location to be searched;

searching the location for the class of assets corresponding to the search term.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of providing a list of assets present at the searched location corresponding to the search term.

3. The method of claim 1, where

the at least three types of input gestures include

a gesture indicative of an alphanumeric characters for generating the search term;

a first pattern indicative of a particular class of objects; and

a second pattern indicative of at least one of a particular location to be searched.

4. The method of claim 3 where said second pattern also indicates a search engine to be used for said search operation.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising

generating a user interface for the input of the at least three types of input gestures.

6. The method of claim 5, where the generated user interface includes at least three separate input regions, each of the at least three input regions corresponding to a respective one of the at least three input gestures.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising a step of auto-populating a field within a respective region of one of the at least three input regions with candidate search terms based on at least sensing input of a portion of the input gesture.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

sensing a further input gesture from a user; and

translating the further input gesture into information identifying a user profile.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising a step of modifying the list of assets to account for restrictions within the user profile.

10. The method of claim 9, where the restrictions within the user profile include data representing at least one of (a) at least one preference describing content of interest to the user, (b) sources available to the user for searching thereof, (c) at least one type of content to be excluded from a search, (d) digital rights management associated with the user, (e) content that is unavailable to the user, and (e) at least one type of content available to the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least three gestures are input on a touch sensitive input device, and the sensing of the at least three gestures includes receiving a signal representative of the input at least three gestures from the touch-sensitive input device.

12. The method of claim 1, where the at least three gestures input via a motion sensor that senses motions indicative of the at least three input gestures.

13. The method of claim 1, where the one of the at least three input gestures translated into the search term includes a plurality of sub-gestures, each sub-gesture representing a respective alphanumeric character, wherein a combination of sub-gestures is used to generate the search term.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of generating a user interface enabling a user to identify a respective gesture with at least one of (a) a class of assets, and (b) a location to be searched.

15. The method of claim 1, where the user interface enables a user to identify the respective one of the at least one of the gestures prior to input thereof.

16. An apparatus for searching for content data comprising:

a controller for

sensing at least three types of input gestures from a user, each of the at least three input gestures representative of a respective one of a search term, a class of assets to be searched and a location to be searched;

translating the sensed at least three types of input gestures into the search term, the class of assets to be searched and the location to be searched; and

initiating a search of the location for the class of assets corresponding to the search term.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising a user interface generator coupled to the controller, the user interface generator generates a user interface display image including a list of assets present at the searched location corresponding to the search term.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, where

the at least three types of input gestures include a gesture indicative of an alphanumeric characters for generating the search term, a first pattern indicative of a particular class of objects, and a second pattern indicative of at least one of a particular location to be search and a particular search engine to be used in completing the search.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the controller controls the user interface generator to generate a user interface for enabling the input of the at least three types of input gestures.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the generated user interface includes at least three input regions, each of the at least three input regions corresponding to a respective one of the at least three input gestures.